This post is about to get real you guys. Before I get into gender roles and our society I just want to give you some basic info about my life. I grew up in a house with two loving parents, two older brothers and an older sister. My sister taught me to be kind, courteous, and liked to tell me, "Beauty is Pain". My brothers taught me how to punch, that video games are awesome, and that it didn’t matter if you were a girl or a boy, wrestling with your siblings is *almost always fun. My Dad is the king of teasing at your expense, the burns are never ending (I definitely inherited that sense of humor) and my Mom is endlessly loving and supportive, a true caretaker.

I spent the majority of my school years at an all girls school where we had a say in the curriculum and our input was always welcome. This is where I discovered that I enjoyed School when I was good at it and despised anything I felt I didn’t excel in (This is a flaw I still struggle with.) Our health class was called ‘Go Grrrls’ and History was renamed ‘Herstory’. It sounds as though they were breeding a bunch of men hating extremists, however we learnt both sides to the stories we were told and had a plethora of male teachers to assure us that Men were not the enemy. I strongly believe that my open minded parents, and by extension my siblings, combined with my girls only schooling influenced my opinion on body image.

First off, I do not understand why body image is such a huge part of our society. Please don’t misinterpret this, I have many insecurities, and I’m not minimizing the issue that body image is. I am merely confused as to how we got to this point. Society is trying to fix women’s view of themselves by saying that every girl is beautiful and discouraging ‘fat shaming’ and skinny shaming’. That’s all great, but we are trying to combat these issues in the completely wrong way. I don’t need some faceless company saying that I’m beautiful in my normal size- this means nothing to me. Why aren’t we telling women and men alike that appearance isn’t what matters? I would way rather someone comment on my intelligence than on my body. Yet in my life I can count how many times my mind has been complimented (from someone other than my parents) and my appearance is always complimented. And yes I wear make-up and diet and workout and a lot of times I feel insecure about my body/face. However I can always count on my brain,; I know that I am smart and intelligent. I enjoy reading, researching, and being knowledgeable. When did having a lean shape and a pretty face become more important than our intelligence? Why is Audrey Hepburn remembered as a beautiful girl and not a phenomenal humanitarian? Why is Marilyn Monroe’s struggle with self-esteem glamorized instead of looked at with empathy and societal reflection? Why have we allowed ourselves to prioritize all of the wrong things? I realize this may be taken as hypocritical as I have a beauty blog, that’s probably true. However I want to pose this final question to you. Think of the last person you complimented, was it a comment on their appearance or a comment on who they are?